Monday, October 06, 2008

Congressional IQ

I don't write much about politics and when I do I keep it pretty even. I'm an independent and right now I am very glad that I am not a Republican or a Democrat.

Can you believe they actually passed that horrendous "bailout bill"? I'm sure all those poor suffering bank executives who made dumb investment decisions are breathing huge sighs of relief now that their buddy Hank Paulson (Treasury Secretary and the former boss of Goldman Sachs) has gotten $700 billion dollars out of the taxpayer and will soon be passing it on to them so they can temporarily prop up their ailing banks and investment companies.

It seems cronyism is not confined to people in government who used to work in the oil industry, it also extends to the financial sector.

What is even more of a wonder is that the majority of those voting for this piece of lunacy were Democrats. I could have sworn they were the ones who say they are against corporate welfare and that they are working for the poorer members of our society. Strange that they would vote for a bill that will put billions into the pockets of people with billions already in their pockets. Go figure.

Some of the truth about this monstrosity of a bill can be found here: Paulson's Reasons for Delaying Day of Reckoning. It's a shame more Congressmen didn't read it before voting.

Here is another interesting article. Ever wondered who owns the two people running for President? Here is your answer: The best candidates special interest money can buy or "Who Owns Whom?" (In case you don't go there and look, the top contributors to both candidates are the very financial institutions who will benefit from the $700 billion of taxpayer money that Congress just voted to give them).

Here is one of the few people in Congress who makes any sense, talking about this dumb bill: Congressman Ron Paul Responds to the 700B Bailout

Can you tell I'm just a bit pissed? I just finished my taxes for 2007 and all the money I'm paying it going to go to pay for stupid dumb-ass bills like this one.

4 comments:

Jim Gatos said...

Hello,

As an independent contractor, I can appreciate what you must've gone through with taxes. I have to pay taxes and believe me, I pay...

I saw all the links and heard Ron Paul's words and I can understand that viewpoint. Some of the information you provided was a real shocker; made me think I should investigate more myself.

However, I did agree the bailout should be done initially. We have to get this country moving again. The housing market seems to be at the heart of the matter.

Two questions; first is what should be done, and secondly is what can the country do to make sure this mess doesn't happen again. It happened before in the early nineties (I was around) although not THIS severe..

What did you get as a consensus of what needs to be done?

Unknown said...

This isn't a comment on the post, however I wanted to get in comm with you about the website Kiva.org. It's a program to connect people who want to help others (by making micro-loans) with people who need a loan. A feature of the program is that individuals can join a group of like-minded people to support a particular project. The groups are categorized by interest. For instance there's the animal lovers group. Another group is religious congregations. Already represented are Mormons, Ba'hai's, Muslims, and many others. There were no Scientologists. I know we have many worthwhile projects already, however if we had a group, I would have joined and put up $25 to be loaned to someone who could use it. I like that it's not a give-away. The risk of not being repaid is currently less than 2% according them. Since you are an opinion leader, if you and others with the comm lines were get behind this, I think we could really spread the word and create an effect. Please take the time to go to Kiva.org let me know what you think. Thanks.

Grahame said...

Hey Jim,

I responded here: Well, I opened my big mouth.

Grahame said...

Hey maqtaaq,

I took a quick look and it seems like a cool program. Helping the poor in third world countries with "micro-loans".

If you are into it then get busy and get others interested.

We all have areas that we like to help in. That could be yours.